Review: Kindle Cafe, Civic

A few weeks ago I was feeling too lazy to take my lunch into work and decided to go out and try something new. I’m pretty lucky where food choices are concerned near my new job, there are cafes and restaurants everywhere within walking distance of my building!

On this day I decided to take a look at a little hidden cafe in the city called Kindle. You can get to it through an alley on one side and walking through an inconspicuous corridor on the other. Once you get there it has an assortment of furniture you’d expect to find in your Nanna’s house.

Kindle Specials Board

Initially when I walked in I wasn’t sure what I was going to have, I sort of wish all restaurants would have their menus on their door/window (or online) so I could look at them and sneak off if I decided I didn’t want to eat there. Kindle didn’t have this but fortunately, after being seated, I liked the look of a few things on the menu. So I was happy to dine in and was shown to a 2 seat table. This table was quite small and it had a tall arrangement of flowers on it. I’m glad I wasn’t sitting with anyone as I don’t know where everything would have fit and I probably wouldn’t have been able to see them over the flowers.

Table arrangement

As with most places I go, I always look for the shakes on the drink menu. This time I decided to go with their Salted Caramel shake.. in hindsight I should have probably stuck a bit more to my comfort zone and gone with the Chocolate and Coconut. Not that the shake was bad, it was just a very intense flavour, first sweet and then salty and it was more than I could handle so, alas, I could not finish it.

Salted Caramel Shake ($7.90)

Oh and did I mention it was my first drink out of a mason jar? I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I’m not sure of the reason that this is something society does. On instagram the only answer I could get was: because hipster. Fortunately, it had a handle and a straw.. the idea of drinking out of a jar is just odd to me.

For my lunch there were a few choices I had to decide between and initially was going to give their Pumpkin, Feta and Sage Fritters a try but ended up choosing the Slow Cooked Chicken Burrito. It was $1 more and I was fairly certain it’d be a bit more filling.

Plus, it came with chips! I tend to have an endless craving for chips and find myself choosing a side of chips at many meals. I was a bit scared to try this because a) I’m not very keen on spicy food and b) I tend to not like avocado/guacamole however try I did and it was pretty tasty. The corn salsa was a bit spicy but I wouldn’t classify it as hot and the guacamole worked well overall. Plus I really like a burrito that has rice in it.

Overall, the food was good and I’d probably go back (it’s so close to work and there are all the other things I want to try on the menu), although I did attempt to go back about a week or so later and waited longer than I had to get served so went elsewhere.

I saw “Kindle” and of course the e-reader device jumped into my head, and I was thinking, OOOOH!? Hahaha, silly me. But mmmm. That shake looks good. It’s not my first time seeing things in a mason jar. I kind of agree that it’s a bit weird drinking out of it, but I think it’s gives it a unique look. I love milkshakes, but I can’t really drink it :( I’m slightly lactose intolerant, and I learned the hard way that milk + ice cream = BAD NEWS.

That burrito on the other hand is something I’d eat :D It looks so yummy!

Ooh the burrito looks amazing! I’ve wondered about this recent ‘drink things from a jar’ trend. As long as the drink is tasty though, it’s not too much trouble! The milkshake looks amazing, but it’s a shame it wasn’t exactly right for you. The decor there looks nice, but the table looks very full! Like you said, you might struggle to sit two people on it!